Northern Health Region adds five new cases Friday, COVID-19 flight exposure

VICTORIA, B.C. – The Northern Health Region added five new cases Friday, moving the active case count to 55.

There are four people in hospital, all of whom are in critical care.

There was one COVID-19 death Friday, moving the regional total to 155.

Out of 7,780 confirmed cases, 7,570 have since recovered.

There were 5,087 vaccine doses given since Thursday, moving the total number of doses given in the Northern Health Region to 199,725.

The province added 109 new cases Friday, moving the active case count to 1,389.

There are 128 people in hospital, 48 of whom are in critical care.

The province confirmed one COVID-19 death Friday, moving the total to 1,740.

Of the 146,902 confirmed cases in B.C., 143,748 have since recovered.

There were 64,280 vaccine doses given since Thursday, moving the total number of shots given in B.C. to 4,296,151.

The British Columbia Centre for Disease Control updated the list of COVID-19 flight exposures.

On June 12th, Air Canada flight 296 from Vancouver to Fort St. John had an exposure. Rows 18 to 24 are affected.

British Columbia’s provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry announced the National Advisory Committee on Immunization’s recent recommendation about the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine does not come as a surprise.

Henry says British Columbia will not be changing its current policy on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“It’s based on some preliminary data from a study that was done in Germany and with a small number of people. And what it’s based on is measuring the immune system response,” said Henry. “It showed that people who had an mRNA vaccine after a dose of AstraZeneca had good or better immune markers afterwards.”